At the end of August 1972 three appeal judges reduced Bremer's sentence for intent to murder to 53 years.

He is currently serving his sentence at the Maryland Correctional Institute. If he serves his full sentence he will be 74-years-old on release.

Governor George Wallace was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life as a result of the incident, which effectively put an end to his ambitions in national politics.

In 1963 Governor Wallace had made national headlines when he declared: "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," and later blocked the entrance to the University of Alabama to keep blacks from enrolling.

But in the 1980s, after a long period of seclusion, he apologised for his early racist actions and won an unprecedented fourth term as governor.

When he died of a heart attack in September 1998, aged 79, black civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, was among the many black Americans who paid tribute to him.